Veterans
and victims of war have ample experience of what happens when
politics fail. Be it a traditional international war
between states or an internal violent clash of conflicting interests
inside a country. The consequences of a failure to mobilize sufficient
leadership to reach out to competing forces before hostilities have become more
or less irreversible more often than not means large scale suffering for
generations to come.

If human
civilisation is anything, it is institutions and methods that in
preconceived and agreed ways handle human fragility and vanity.
Negotiations however tedious are almost always to be preferred to violent
means.

The United Nations
and the World Veteran Federation are two such institutions
that strive to make the world a little bit more orderly and peaceful.
As such they both deserve our full support.

I'm but a
national parliamentarian from Sweden’s third biggest city Malmö
situated in the Southern part of the country. If you’ve seen a televised
musical contest recently you might just know of this town right across the
narrow strait from Copenhagen.

It is my
duty as an elected representative to defend the liberal values in which I
believe and which got me elected. But I and my colleagues in Parliament must
differentiate between policy, which we might or might not agree upon, and our
fundamental obligation to express solidarity and a great deal of appreciation for
the individual service rendered by all personnel military or civilian who in
often difficult circumstances did their best to carry out Swedish official
policy in conflicts abroad.

The same
holds true to the families and relatives of those who serve in foreign
countries. Their wellbeing at home is a prerequisite for those deployed men and
women to do a good job in an often far away and dangerous place.

I'm not
going to give you a complete list of what Sweden has or has not done for
veterans. Whatever we have done has clearly been inspired by neighbouring
countries with a far longer and more profound experience of
caring for veterans and their relatives. We don’t, at least not yet, have a
Veteran Centre such as Baereia in Norway or a Veterans Institute as in the
Netherlands. Furthermore I'm not an official
government representative and thus should not try to speak as one.

Rather than that, I will try to explain my own personal view on Sweden’s
relations to the European Union and NATO and the potential importance that
veteran affairs possibly can play for the multinational integration of defence
efforts in this part of the world.

Sweden is a member-state in the European Union and a partner to NATO, but
foremost Sweden as any other state is a Nation-state. The armed
forces of Sweden are ultimately designed and financed for the
protection of Swedish sovereignty. This doesn’t mean that Sweden believes in
splendid isolation when it comes to defence matters and this has probably never
been the case. But we Swedes have been quite apt at propagating the illusion of
neutrality. The defence of Scandinavian territory and Scandinavian interests will,
as almost always has been the case, be a common effort of many likeminded free
and independent nations. This is why the European Union and NATO matter so much
for our country.

Concepts
such as Pooling and Sharing and Smart Defence have since some time been
tried by the European Union and NATO respectively. I will not dismiss these
commendable efforts and the highly desirable results which have been promised. Even
so it is my firm belief that these top-down programmes will have to be
complemented by more of a bottom-up or why not citizen-oriented approach.
Veterans and their relatives clearly should be able to play a crucial role reaching
out across borders. Veteran Affairs should be a central task for the High
Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
and likewise for the Secretary General of NATO.

You have all yesterday experienced the inauguration of a National Swedish
Veteran Monument on the occasion of the International Day of the United Nations
Peacekeepers. It is my hope that this monument will serve Sweden and
international peacekeeping for many decades yet to come.

This
doesn't mean that all has been done for veterans in Sweden. Let me just finally
mention three clear and pressing examples of what in my
opinion Sweden as a nation-state needs to address. These are the lack of:

- an official national medal of recognition for distinguished service,
- recognition also of veterans which have served before 1992 and
- a memorial for Sweden’s hereto only Secretary-General of the United
Nations. Dag Hammarskjöld died in the very pursuit of human
rights and Peace in an armed conflict in Congo more than fifty years ago.

I wish
you all a constructive Peace and Security Summit and look forward to the
declarations you are going to adopt here in Stockholm.